THROWBACK THURSDAY: The OTHER 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I could recall coming across the Guardians of the Galaxy during my prime comic-book reading years in the late '70s and early '80s.

Pete Chianca

I saw “Guardians of the Galaxy” before leaving on vacation last week, and while I had the general impression that the group was a fairly recent comic-book creation, somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I could recall coming across them during my prime comic-book reading years in the late ’70s and early ’80s. It’s amazing how many specific comic-book plots I remember from when I was 11, in contrast to certain other things from that era that I’ve almost completely forgotten, like math.

Sure enough, after I got back I rummaged through the box of yellowed old comic books in my basement -- they were excommunicated by my parents from their attic some years back, and I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away -- and was able to turn up the two samples pictured above. I was right, I DID know the Guardians! Well, sort of.

A check of Wikipedia explains why the characters in these comics -- primarily a mirrored guy, a lady with flaming hair and a birdman -- are nowhere to be found in the movie: They’re from the ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy, a group of 31st century freedom fighters who apparently spent a lot of time traveling back to the 20th century and meeting American superheroes. (In fact, the plot of these comics -- a good five years before the first “Terminator” movie -- involves them trying to stop a plan by their arch-enemy to go back in time to kill the young version of the Guardians’ founder in order to prevent their existence. Take that, James Cameron!)

The Guardians in the movie, meanwhile, didn’t make their comics debut until 2008, and just took their name from the original Guardians. Although there was some connection involving an old Guardian who’d been wrapped in foil and put into hyper-sleep for 1,000 years, or something … Frankly I can only get so far in those Wikipedia entries about comic book chronologies before my lids get heavy and the words start to look like long strings of binary code.

And before you start sending me angry emails asking where I get off writing about comic books when I'm so clearly out of the loop, here's six minutes of "Guardians of the Galaxy" Easter eggs to distract you:

Meanwhile, no matter where the latest Guardians came from, they’re in one heck of a good movie. I’ll admit at first I thought the plot seemed kind of gobbledygookey (official critic term) -- something involving an abducted earth boy, purple all-purpose space villain Thanos, his adopted daughters of varying intergalactic hues, an orb and a talking raccoon.

But it’s impossible not to get caught up in the film’s winking humor -- Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill (sorry, “Star-Lord”) is easily the most likable space jockey since Han Solo, and the Rocket/Groot pairing is destined to go down in film history among the great cinematic combos, somewhere between Abbot & Costello and Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. (Not to mention Han and Chewie.)

I look forward to the inevitable meeting of the minds between Pratt’s Quill and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark (only four years until “Avengers 3”!). In the meantime, I can only hope that the Guardians of the Galaxy craze will result in my two old comics skyrocketing in value, even if it’s not THOSE Guardians. (Current prices on eBay: $1.39 and $1.98. And those copies probably aren’t yellow.)